State Rep. Pollet starts “traveling town-hall” discussions Saturday

State Rep. Gerry Pollet

By Evan Smith

Democratic State Rep. Gerry Pollet will start his series of “traveling town-hall” discussions when he returns to the 46th Legislative District from Olympia each Saturday during the 60-day legislative session that started Monday, Jan. 8.

The first of these “drop-in discussions” is scheduled for Saturday Jan. 13 from 10 a.m. to noon at Burgermaster, 3040 NE 45th St., Seattle.

The second drop-in town-hall discussion is scheduled for Saturday January 20, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Lake Forest Park Town Center upper level, 17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park.

Pollet represents the 46th District, including Lake Forest Park, northeast and north Seattle, and Kenmore.

Pollet said Jan. 3 that he wanted to hold these events “because I know how difficult it is for constituents to go to Olympia, and because I want to make it easy for constituents to discuss issues with me.”

He also listed these priorities for the new legislative session:

• Fully funding our schools, which means another $1 billion for teacher compensation this year, and fully funding the real costs for special education, bilingual education, responding to the severe teacher shortage and much more
• Reducing the property tax hike for education and replacing it with progressive taxes, closing loopholes and capital gains (he will also be moving forward with his tax loophole transparency and expiration legislation)
• School construction funds to ease overcrowding and enable us to lower class sizes
• Free Community College: the Washington Promise, plus major investments in advising for all students; and, pay equity for community college part time faculty
• Opening legislators' records to public and media view, so you know who lobbies your legislators
• Regulating For Profit colleges and their student loans
• Protecting youth from addiction to e-cigarettes and nicotine with a e-cigarette tax, which pays to raise the age to buy to 21, and providing Narcan to prevent opioid overdoses.

Pollet is vice chairman of the House Higher Education Committee and a member of both the Appropriations Committee and the Finance Committee.